Seattle Transit Blog

(UPDATE: Metro’s Victor Obeso has responded, saying Metro is “actively considering” this change. Mr. Obeso’s full statement is below the story.) By now, everyone is familiar with our dismay over the lack of a meaningful Link restructure in Capitol Hill, and in particular over some of the major losses that Metro’s final restructure package is […]

STB has a longstanding policy to print unedited responses to our articles by agency officials. Metro’s Deputy General Manager Victor Obeso submitted this response to Zach’s Tuesday piece entitled “Metro Cancels Capitol Hill Restructure“. BY VICTOR OBESO Metro hasn’t canceled the Capitol Hill restructure. Riders will see more frequent and reliable bus service integrated with rail […]

The saga of restructuring bus service for University Link continues this week, with Metro transmitting the official restructure details in two packages (A and B). These packages are the marching orders needed for each department (marketing, facilities, operations etc) to implement the changes in time for March 2016 service change. There are lots of small changes in these packages, […]

by SEATTLE SUBWAY ST3 is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Let’s make it great! As you sit in a car or bus stuck in ever-worsening traffic in our region, do you ever imagine what our region would be like if we had approved Forward Thrust in 1968 or 1970—a system that would have […]

When the Sound Transit board next convenes, it will advance a set of light rail and bus expansion projects to go to voters in 2016 as a package known as “ST3.” Based on the project list, financial constraints, and desires of local leaders, informed observers assume that this package will include a light rail variation on […]

From the PSBJ: Over the coming year, Urban@UW will develop and launch pilot projects focused on urban issues. Examples might include addressing sidewalk accessibility, using data to assess community well-being, and transportation for disabled King County residents. Those projects could take the shape of a series of conversations, a small-scale research project, or other formats. […]

Obstructed view of route 880, which will see all trips extended to the Mukilteo ferry terminal beginning next March. (photo by author) The official results of the November 3, 2015 election have been certified, with Community Transit victorious in their campaign to fund additional transit service with a 0.3% sales tax increase. Just over 100,000 residents in […]

The cost of zoning. “…the increase in [housing] supply is slowing down rent growth.” Supply and demand has not been repealed. Sound Transit seeking bids on $400m contract to build Lynnwood Link from Northgate to N. 200th St. Portland Streetcar circulates infographic showing how great it is. The latest iteration of the plan for the Mount […]

The Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA), a Mayor-Murray inspired “grand compromise” between for-profit developer and affordable housing interests, started to take legal shape in the last few weeks with a series of new council bills. The first item, approved September 28th, was a work plan to address the HALA recommendations (with the notable exception […]

As rain pounded the Northwest last week, and thousands of newly transplanted Californians started to question their life choices, it seemed inevitable that a landslide along the BNSF corridor between Everett and Seattle would force cancellations of Sounder North and Amtrak Cascades trains. For those of us who remember recent winters, when the mudslides seemed […]

As testing for the First Hill Streetcar has proceeded, the final station touches have been added, including frosted glass and station amenities such as maps and rider information. Yet in a triumph of form over function, the well-designed maps omit just about every important piece of transit information that a rider might want to know. Their modal […]

I give thanks that transit operates 365 days a year here in Seattle. Some in transit get the day off, some do not. The day after Thanksgiving is now designated Mark McLaughlin Day by King County, in honor of the operator who was shot and killed by a passenger 17 years ago. The bus went […]

This morning, Metro has begun soliciting feedback on a proposal to connect Renton, Skyway, Rainier Beach, Mount Baker, and the International District with frequent service 7 days a week. The proposal resurrects a largely meritorious idea from the old transit cuts packages, merging the southern half of Route 8 (soon to be 38) with Route […]

At a few minutes after eight on election night, November 3, Shafali Ranganathan, deputy director at Transportation Choices Coalition, was a bundle of nerves. Standing behind a pool table set up with computers and a projector in an upstairs room at the Belltown Pub, Ranganathan and about 100 supporters of Move Seattle, the biggest transportation levy […]

Martin and Frank discuss Madison BRT, open vs. closed bus systems, BRT creep, rail bias, bus branding, and Sound Transit’s new CEO. https://media.blubrry.com/seattletransitblog/s3.amazonaws.com/stb-wp/wp-content/podcasts/STB_podcast_6.mp3

You can plan for growth, or you can be overwhelmed by it. This community is planning for it. — Peter M. Rogoff, next CEO of Sound Transit The Sound Transit Board held its monthly meeting Thursday, featuring a hotly-debated fare change on ST Express and Sounder and the confirmation of Peter M. Rogoff as the […]

Coach 91501 on display at Union Station yesterday afternoon. (Photo by author) This morning at Everett Station, the first of five new double-decker buses began regular service on Sound Transit Express routes. The double-decker buses, ordered in March 2014 for approximately $5 million and first proposed in November 2013, are identical to the second generation of Alexander […]

New Link maps percolating through the fleet (see picture above). Reaction here. Tacoma Housing Authority planning 40 to 50-unit mixed-use development near future Tacoma Link station. Kirkland holding meeting Nov. 19th about BRT. Buried in this article about new buildings at UW ($), this little example of how our transportation money goes astray: “The Nanoengineering & […]

Yesterday, County Executive Dow Constantine announced the long-expected sale of Convention Place Station (CPS) to the Washington State Convention Center for a price tag of $147M. The long-expected move provides the WSCC with the largest parcel required for its vision of a $1.4B expansion (financed primarily by $1.1B in 30-year bonds) that would be the […]

Kirkland residents and workers, and anyone else interested in the future of mobility in Kirkland, should attend the City of Kirkland’s ST3 open house tomorrow night (Thursday, Nov. 19). The open house is at the Kirkland Performance Center in downtown Kirkland, one short block from Kirkland Transit Center, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Frequent Metro bus […]

Last night SDOT hosted a crowd of nearly 200 people to hear the latest Preferred Concept Design for the Madison Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. SDOT staff and Nelson Nygaard walked attendees through the rationale for the project (inclusion in Seattle’s Transit Master Plan), the preferred alignment, stop and facilities treatments, fleet plans, funding, and […]

Last August, Sound Transit selected a Project Priority List to proceed to the next level of study for the ST3 ballot measure. Since then, the agency has been working with other stakeholders to evaluate potential projects. The City of Kirkland, having successfully advocated for a Bus Rapid Transit option on the Eastside Rail Corridor (ERC), has worked with consultants to […]

From the video’s description: The Enoshima Electric Railway is a popular scenic railway line on the pacific coast, 50 kilometers in the south of Tokyo. It is also called Enoshima Dentetsu, making the shortened form “Enoden”.

Late last year, pressure from Seattle Transit Blog leaders led the City to require a study on integrating the Seattle Center Monorail into the ORCA system. Last June, Seattle Center delivered its report, as discovered by alert reader Kevin Heim. The bottom line is that there are three steps necessary for ORCA integration: The city […]

The Sound Transit Board of Directors is scheduled to take action on the proposals for fare increases and adding a low-income fare category on ST Express and Sounder at its monthly meeting next Thursday, November 19, from 1:30-4:00 pm. The public comment period on the proposals ended last Thursday, so any further lobbying requires communicating […]

Low bid on Bellevue Link tunnel drilling is $121m, 20% below estimates. Pronto ready for U-Link. Lots of skyscrapers coming to downtown and SLU. Marco Rubio wants to slash federal gas tax, end “looting” by the Mass Transit Account. Roger Valdez argues proposed developer fees will deter construction. SDOT looking at plans for Ballard land […]

Though Sound Transit 3 won’t be on the ballot until next year, the recent elections will have a direct impact on ST3, shuffling 3 of the 18 Sound Transit Board seats. The current board will get one crack at the ST3 project list at a December 4th Board Workshop (more on this soon), but new boardmembers […]

The update to our recent Madison BRT post contained a crucial bit of information, namely that SDOT’s Concept Design is not considering transit priority east of 18th Avenue for Madison Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and that it will only have fully exclusive right-of-way for 10 blocks (from 9th to 13th Avenue). There may be good (or […]

Three quick updates this morning on the Seattle Streetcar network. 1). Portland is getting ready to buy 3 of our used streetcars for the price of 1. 2). After a lengthy closure for Amazon HQ construction, the inbound 7th/Westlake stop on the South Lake Union line has reopened. 3). According to the streetcar’s official Twitter account, the First […]

When all the construction is done and light rail spreads across greater Puget Sound sometime in the next decade, one segment will look distinctly different from the rest. The 7 miles of track through the Rainier Valley will be the only section one of few sections, along with parts of East Link, where the trains run at-grade. […]

Wednesday is Veterans Day, which is a holiday for some, but not for most transit agencies. Indeed, Sound Transit, the monorail, the South Lake Union Streetcar, Pierce Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, Skagit Transit, Island Transit, Whatcom Transit, Intercity Transit, Twin Transit, Jefferson Transit, Greys Harbor Transit, and Mason Transit are all running on regular […]

Sound Transit held a hearing on the proposals for fare increases and honoring ORCA LIFT on ST Express and Sounder last Thursday, followed by a meeting of the board’s Operations and Administration Committee, where the proposals were vetted for a recommendation to the full board. Sunnie Sterling, ST’s Revenue Analysis Manager, gave staff’s reason for […]

Zurich: Where People Are Welcome and Cars Are Not from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

University Link is coming in roughly one quarter. Expectations are high, not only for the revolution in travel time it will bring, but for the sheer volume of people expected to use the service. Sound Transit’s draft 2016 Service Implementation Plan (p. 122) projects average weekday boardings of 34,600 this year jumping up to 51,800 in […]

Late Friday morning, Sound Transit’s tunnel boring machine ‘Brenda’ holed through at the future University District station at NE 43rd St & Brooklyn Ave NE. The machine took 6 months to tunnel the mile between Roosevelt Station and the UDistrict and will be refurbished before digging the last mile of the northbound tunnel to UW Station. […]

Are you ready for ST3? Project evaluation begins in earnest 4 weeks from Friday, when the ST Board will begin reviewing updated project analysis while beginning to look at financial models and overall package size options. Back in May, the initial project list caused considerable alarm (and a record 529 comments) among our readership for not […]

Metro enrolled 18,384 people in ORCA LIFT through September, and are 3% of all Metro boardings. Sound Transit hiring a transit planner. Pierce Transit considers a fare increase. Jarrett Walker tries to understand the other side. The full “Gridlocked” forum video is now online. ST seeking contractor for Lynnwood Link. Congress fighting over Positive Train […]

[Correction: SDOT says in an email the updated concept will have no bus priority east of 18th Avenue, with buses running in mixed traffic from 18th-MLK. The original post has been updated below.] It’s been roughly six months since we last heard from the (newly funded!) Madison BRT project. Back in May, public feedback generally […]

In initial results posted last night, Seattle voters largely embraced the center-left urbanism of Mayor Murray, approving Move Seattle, retaining all 5 City Council incumbents, and easily beating anti-growth candidates such as Bill Bradburd. Happily, here at STB we are enjoying a 9-0 lead in our Council endorsements, though races may shift as more ballots come […]

Welcome to STB’s 2015 General Election Open Thread! We’ll be posting results as they come in (first drop is at 8pm), and we’ll be chiming in with additional commentary throughout the evening. We’ll also be sharing reactions on our Twitter feed using hashtag #seaelex. 5:00pm If you want to know where to celebrate and ‘network’ […]

[UPDATE: The livestream technology didn’t work out for us. You’ll hear the podcast in the morning. Sorry.] Martin and I are going to try to do a live audio broadcast of the election results tonight, starting around 8:15pm PST. Watch this space for details on how to listen. If the live stream doesn’t work for whatever reason, […]

Republished from Let’s Move Seattle Last Friday Mayor Murray quietly published an op-ed to the Let’s Move Seattle campaign page, eloquently responding to many of the measure’s critics. If you haven’t voted yet, get on it, and if you’re still unsure of your vote on Prop 1, here is the Mayor’s op-ed reprinted in full. […]

If you are tired of having your mailbox stuffed with slick mailers full of hyperbole, stock photo models designed to look like Seattleites, finger-pointing about how their opponent is going negative, as well as the onslaught of hate being heaped on bike, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure through the largesse of a major Eyman funder, REJOICE! […]

The Slog had a well-reported piece Sunday on whether or not Move Seattle is a “slush fund.” That’s a loaded choice of words by the opposition, meant to imply a lack of democratic or public process. If you think that implication is plausible, then this is your first month following Seattle politics. To actually construct […]

A bus so quiet you can have an acoustic music performance on it, for a more pleasant environment inside and out.

At its September Board Meeting, Sound Transit approved the largest single budget item in its history, $733M to procure the remaining 122 light rail vehicles (LRVs) needed for the full ST2 buildout to Lynnwood, Overlake, and Des Moines. When delivered, these LRVs will triple Sound Transit’s fleet from the current 62 LRVs to a total of […]